


No Place Like Home

by nirejseki



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Family Feels, Fix-It, Gen, M/M, spoilers through the LOT finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-06-10 01:02:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6931543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nirejseki/pseuds/nirejseki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which being in the same family as a wanted criminal mastermind makes things a little more complicated, but not really.</p><p> </p><p>Response to tumblr prompt: Jax & Len, AU in which they're related (like Jax's dad or mom is Len's cousin?)</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Place Like Home

Jax is maybe six or seven years old when he meets his infamous cousin Lenny. Old enough to know what it means when the kids at school make fun of him for not having a dad or when Mom says they’re having some “money trouble” and she’s going to be working double shifts again, young enough to still spend most of his time playing with the other boys out in the street and think he needs little else. 

He goes inside for a drink – Central City is having a heat wave and it’s blistering outside – and hears his mom crying in the kitchen.

Jax immediately beelines straight there, ready to fight anyone who upset his momma, but then pauses when he sees that Mom’s smiling and shaking her head while Grandma’s in about the same state, patting her hands and smiling through her tears. The guy sitting in front of her is pretty big, bigger than she is and either white or close enough to pass, but his shoulders are up by his ears and he’s ducking his head in the exact same way Jax and everyone else he knows always does when confronted by the combined forces of his mother and Grandma Louise, so Jax figures he can’t be that much of a threat.

“I can’t,” his Mom is saying, wiping the tears off her face. “Really, Lenny, this is too much.”

“It really isn’t,” the guy says firmly. Jax has got to respect that; _no one_ stands up to Mom and Grandma Louise, except maybe Great-Aunt Josephine but that’s because it’s _Great-Aunt Josephine_ and she could make sharks flee in terror. “You were the only people in the family that stuck around after Mom refused to divorce Dad,” the guy continues. “You were the ones who paid for Lisa to go away to summer camp so she wouldn’t be home alone when I got stuck in juvie that year, and I know that didn’t come cheap at a time when you already had too many bills to pay. This is just my way of repaying that.”

Mom bursts into tears again.

The guy – Lenny? Jax thinks he’s heard of a cousin Lenny, Aunt Cynthia says he’s no good but everyone knows Aunt Cynthia is a stuck up gossip – looks around the room awkwardly in an attempt to avoid dealing with it and sees Jax. “Hey, kid,” he says, gesturing for him to come nearer. “C’mere, tell your Mom how pretty she is.”

Jax edges closer, still wary and wondering what this guy’s talking about (of course his mom’s pretty! She’s the prettiest mom on the whole block, everybody knows that!) but then he sees Mom is wearing a sparkly gold necklace and long, draping earrings of the type that she really likes but doesn’t wear much because her job won’t let her. “Wow, Mom!” he exclaims, zipping over to examine her further. “You look like a movie star!”

“Oh, baby,” she says, and pulls him into her lap. She’s smiling real hard and it makes the circles under her eyes all but disappear. Jax decides he likes cousin Lenny.

“See?” Lenny says, lips curling up into a small smile. “Even Jefferson here agrees.”

“Jax!” Jax pipes up, but without much hope. Grown-ups never call him Jax; it’s always “Jefferson’s a fine name” and “your grandfather was named Jefferson, did you know that”.

But Lenny nods like he’s taking Jax seriously. “Sorry, even _Jax_ here agrees,” he says. “And you know Jax has got great taste; he takes after his Mom and Grandma that way.”

“You’re a shameless flatterer, Lenny,” his Grandma scolds him, but mildly. “You promise this won’t be any trouble?”

Lenny shakes his head. “Got the receipts and everything; it’s all bought and paid for,” he says, nodding at the box on the table. “And it’s not like _I’m_ going to wear it. Not quite my style.”

“That’s not what I meant,” she says. “It won’t put you short anywhere, will it?”

He shakes his head. 

“It really is lovely, Jenna; you should thank the boy for being so thoughtful,” Grandma Louise tells Mom, who laughs a little, still shaky. 

Jax pokes at Mom’s new necklace. It’s really shiny and looks like it has little diamonds woven into it. “These real diamonds?” he asks, fascinated.

“Now, Jefferson –” his Grandma starts, but Lenny laughs.

“Yeah, kid,” he says with a little smile. “Of course they’re real. You think I’d bring your Mom some cheap knock-off? Huh? If I do that, what’s she gonna wear to your cousin Chiyel’s wedding next month? Or to Aunt Rosa’s funeral, may it happen soon?”

“Leonard Snart!” his Grandma exclaims, trying for horrified when everyone and their brother knows that she’s hated Great-Aunt Rosa with an undying passion since his mom was Jax’s age. “You shut your mouth this instant. That’s a very unkind thing to say.” 

Mom is cackling and Lenny’s grinning, a big broad grin that makes him look younger than Jax had thought he was – more like a teenager than someone in his twenties or thirties. “Speaking of which,” he says, reaching into his pocket. “I was gonna swing by your house to give this to you later, Aunt Louise –” 

“Don’t you _dare_ pull another trinket out of that pocket of yours,” Grandma says threateningly.

“Just a little one,” he promises and put another box like the first one on the table, sliding it over. Jax’s grandma opens it and it’s a pin in the shape of a bird. It’s even sparklier than Mom’s necklace.

“That’s not _little_ , you no-good little –” Grandma starts saying, but Mom’s already giggling and holds up her hands to stop her.

“Oh no you don’t,” she says. “Don’t you dare! You were telling me to take the necklace and earrings he was giving me; you can’t say no now!”

Grandma huffs as if she’s displeased, but she looks down at the pin and smiles at it, a soft private smile that says she’s been reminded of Grandpa. “It’s lovely, Leonard. Thank you.”

Cousin Lenny nods, but his smile disappears . “I want you to have it, both of you, in case you need cash and I ain’t around to help out,” he says seriously. “I know it’s a gift and all, but I’d rather you sell these for rent or hospital bills if you’re short instead of any more of great-grandma’s rings, okay?”

“We only sold the ugly one,” Grandma protests, but she’s already nodding. 

“Still,” Lenny insists. “You never know when something might happen, but there’s always a market for gold.”

Jax gets bored and hops off his mother’s lap, going to the fridge for that drink instead. He thinks they might still have juice boxes. “If we’re handing out presents,” he calls over his shoulder. “Can I have a Nerf gun instead?”

“Jefferson!”

\---------------------------------

The downtown district that Jax lives and goes to school in isn’t the best. There are plenty of dangerous people in the streets: gangs looking for trouble, thugs for the Families making trouble, and solo criminals that just plain old are trouble, plus the usual assortment of drug dealers and addicts.

Jax stays in school and works hard, getting straight As (except for English literature, but that’s because his teacher hates him – and she still had to give him a B+; thank god that APs counted for extra or he’d lose his 4.0 GPA); he’s joined the football team, which gives him a legitimate, if not always believed, reason to turn down most of the invites to parties and stuff. No one questions why a kid who runs as fast as Jax does, who might one day have potential NCAA prospects in his future, shrugs and says, “Sorry, man, random drug testing’s a killer.”

It doesn’t make all the offers go away, though, and there’s always someone starting shit somewhere. Jax’s mom worries about it getting to him; she spends half her time concerned about the neighborhood and half the time concerned about the cops that patrol it, a worryingly large percentage of which have Family money flowing into their pockets.

No one can do anything about the cops, but the first gang that started harassing Jax when he was in middle school went abruptly quiet after cousin Lenny swung by the neighborhood for a visit. 

Jax had serious trouble with the concept that the twenty-something guy who used to roll around in the yard playing with him and his other cousins was scary enough to shut the gangs up. Of all people, _Lenny_? Sure, Jax’d heard that he had a pretty long criminal record and probably a few open arrest warrants, but Jax mostly remembered him as the only adult in his family who was willing to play superhero rescue squad with the kids during family events. 

As adults go, Lenny was definitely one of his better cousins. He never complained about being cast as the supporting sidekick or the evil supervillain who was defeated by their team of heroes. (Lenny’s evil supervillain speeches were the _best_ – he used to pick up little Tisha, playing the kidnapped princess as always, and swing her around in his arms, while still managing to convey an adequate sense of menace as he spouted increasingly ridiculous lines like “Give in now, heroes! Your defeat is inevitable! No one can defeat me! _I am invincible_!”)

Lenny’s buddy Mick, on the other hand, Jax could see being a bit scary. Jax hadn’t had much interaction with him early on: first time had been when Lenny had dragged Mick to one of Grandma Louise’s Easter dinners, glaring at everyone like he thought they’d disapprove of his choice in friends, but the guy’d been pretty polite and _very_ appreciative of the food, which was the way straight to Grandma Louise’s heart. 

Then before he could come again, Aunt Cynthia managed to find out somehow that he had a record as an arsonist and declared that she wasn’t going to let _her_ kids eat with someone like _that_ , and it had very nearly started a whole family feud _again_ about whether or not Lenny – who was after all a fairly distant cousin from the Jewish half of the family; his mother had been someone’s second or third cousin once removed and she was dead now anyways – should be invited to family events. 

There had been a lot of shouting and Jax made bets with his cousin Dom as to who would be the first one to obliquely mention the elephant in the room, which is that cousin Lenny might be a thief and a bad influence, but he was a thief who could be relied upon to “coincidentally” come up with some spare cash if anybody was short for their rent or mortgage payments or even the electricity bill because the tech bubble bursting was making the economy all wonky and had started cutting into everyone’s pocketbooks; more than a few people had lost their jobs.

Lenny’s sister Lisa – who Jax mostly remembered as the girl who ice skated like a religion when he was younger but had to cut it off for some reason – had found her way into the discussion and had basically ended it by saying, “If you don’t want to invite Mick any more, it’s not a problem; Lenny and me can go somewhere else for Christmas” because _no one_ in the family dared mess with Great-Aunt Josephine’s Christmas party. Even Uncle Dee, who was mean when he was drunk and was drunk most of the time, could be counted on to behave. 

There was also the given understanding that Great-Aunt Josephine’s Christmas party was strictly family and fiancées only, which cleared up the issue considerably for everyone. 

Aunt Cynthia sniffed a little and said some stuff about “it” not setting a good example for the kids, but Grandma Louise told her to shove it and it wasn’t like they wanted anyone to grow up like cousin Lenny _anyway_ , given his unfortunate choice in careers, and also it was the 21st century and she should get that homophobic anti-Semitic stick out of her ass. 

That had started a whole new fight, of course. 

Of course, Mick became a hero in the eyes of all the younger generation after he showed up to the Fourth of July with an entire crate full of fireworks, some of which Jax was sure were totally illegal to own in the United States, and redeemed himself in the eyes of the adult set when he and Lenny and Lisa spent the entire party corralling the kids and let the other adults sip on their drinks and socialize in peace for once. 

Their visits became rarer as Jax got older – those open arrest warrants started piling up, apparently – but they were still _family_. Sure, they were the weird-ass black-sheep part of the family that came up when people were swapping “I’ve got this crazy cousin” stories, but still, family’s family. 

Jax hadn’t seen them in at least two, maybe three years when the particle accelerator exploded, but his medical bills were suspiciously reasonable (Jax was _never_ telling his mom that he saw Len handing a brown envelope to the insurance guy at the hospital while Lisa peppered her with questions about Chiyel’s new baby twins) and Mick – older, broader, and with some nasty burn scars on his shoulders and arms, showing up when Lenny wasn’t around because they were on the outs again – gave him a crash course in automobile parts and basic maintenance so he could get a job as a mechanic when it turned out his ACL was torn and the football scholarships all went away.

He might not have their numbers on speed dial, but they’re in his mom’s phone book. After he ends up merging with Stein and stopping Hewitt, before they go to Pittsburgh, Jax takes a few minutes out of saying goodbye to his mom to call Len up to ask his advice. 

“Superhero rescue squad, huh?” is Len’s first reaction.

“That ain’t funny,” Jax tells him.

“Oh, it’s hilarious.”

“Like you’re one to talk, I _own your action figure_ ,” Jax says.

“It’s pretty cool, isn’t it?” Len says happily. He’s such a weirdo. And that had _better_ not have been a pun.

“Seriously, man!”

“Well, this call’s not so much closing the barn doors after the horses have taken their leave as it is that you’ve set the barn on _fire_ ,” Len tells him practically. “But Jax, you were always playing the hero, every time. You want to help people. You always have. You were the one chasing after all your cousins trying to get them out of trouble even if they were older and bigger than you. This is just that on a bigger scale. You’ll be fine.”

“So you’re saying I didn’t ruin my life?” Jax says.

“It sounds to me more like you saved some lives,” Len tells him. “Which is much more your style. Just do me a favor – if there’s another black hole, _just say no_. Like DARE.”

“You’re a dick,” Jax tells him, but he’s feeling a bit lighter all around. “And nowhere near as funny as you think you are.”

“I’m hilarious and you know it,” Len says dismissively. “Hey, you should say hi to Barry for me.”

“I’m not even asking how you know about that,” Jax replies, rolling his eyes. “Oh, hey, guess what? I can _fly_ now.”

“Yeah, while on _fire_. Say, you think we can work out you giving Mick a ride for his birthday?”

“Keep in mind I have a co-pilot who does _not_ have the same warm and fuzzy feelings towards you two as I do – but I’ll see what I can do. We’re going to Pittsburgh to get some training.”

“Want me to swing by and put the fear of god into your new partner? Pittsburgh’s got some decent museums. Terrible traffic, though.”

“ _No_. Jesus. Leave Grey alone. Leave _Pittsburgh_ alone. Besides, Grey seems decent enough, even if he is a little stuck up.”

“Don’t let him treat you like an idiot because you didn’t go to college,” Len – a high school dropout himself – advises. “He’ll try to, trust me; the type of person who spends their life in higher education just can’t seem to help it.”

“I’ll watch out for it,” Jax promises. “You make sure Mom and Aunt Maryann and Aunt Cynthia don’t all get into a fistfight at the next family barbeque if I don’t make it there to help play keep-away, okay?”

“I’ll do my best, but it might be too funny to resist. Fly safe, kid.”

\--------------------------------------------

“You’d rather stay with them?” Grey asks, hesitating at the door to the bridge of the goddamn time-travel spaceship.

“ _They_ didn’t drug me,” Jax says, crossing his arms.

“Point taken.”

As soon as Grey heads off with Kendra, Carter and Ray, Jax spins around and confronts the miscreants, exclaiming, “I cannot _believe_ that you aided and abetted my kidnapping!” 

“Pretty sure you were already kidnapped when you arrived,” Len observes, because he’s a dick. 

“You didn’t object!”

“I carried you on board,” Mick volunteers. Because he is also a dick.

“ _Seriously_?”

“Hey, there’s a TV,” Mick observes, hopping to his feet and walking around Jax. 

Jax throws his hands in the air.

The blonde girl – Sara? – smirks at him, pulling out a knife and a stone to whet it on. “Is time travel really so bad? You’ll be back before anyone knows it.”

“I’m supposed to meet Grandma Louise tonight for dinner,” Jax groans. “Oh, _man_. Thanks, that just made this all _worse_. I didn’t want to go on this stupid trip in the first place!”

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Len drawls. “But your partner there seemed pretty dead-set on going.”

“No shit, what gave that away? The fact that he drugged me?”

Len arches an eyebrow. “Aren’t the two of you bonded on a molecular level?” he asks sweetly. “What was it again, certain death for both sides if you separate for too long?”

“Are you actually supporting me getting roofied?!”

Len shrugs. “Thanksgiving, 2003.”

Jax would have thought that was a non-sequitur, except he remembers – or rather, _doesn’t_ remember – that Thanksgiving. The kids all had platefuls of turkey and then everyone was tired and they all went to take naps after the food instead of going crazy in the backyard as usual. He'd thought it was just super-effective tryptophan. 

“You drugged the _turkey_?!”

“I’m not a monster,” Len says modestly. “We drugged the sweet potatoes. That marshmallow monstrosity is too sweet for anyone over the age of fourteen to eat anyway.”

“I hate you _so much_.”

“It was such a nice Thanksgiving. No kids screaming, nothing getting broken, just a bunch of adults sitting around and drinking. Very pleasant. Everyone was very happy.”

“Words do not even begin to describe how much I hate you right now,” Jax says fervently. “I cannot _believe_ you got my mother to go along with you on that, you _jerk_.”

"Peaceful, quiet, lots of food, no kids...it really wasn't that hard."

“You two had Thanksgiving together?” Sara asks, looking up from where she’s sharpening her knife. “I figured you knew each other, but that’s pretty close.”

“This asshole’s my cousin a few times removed,” Jax says with a sigh. Sara’s eyebrows arch.

At least she has the good taste to keep any comments about their respective shades of pale to herself; not everyone their relationship has been revealed to has managed to do that. 

“Why does this stupid station play nothing but reruns?” Mick asks with a scowl. 

“Don’t even bother trying to explain,” Jax says to Sara, who might actually buy Mick’s whole ‘I’m just a dumb grunt’ shtick that he tries to pull on people. Like Len would ever hang out with someone as dumb as Mick pretends to be. 

“Am I the only one on this ship who could really use a drink?” Sara asks. “I say we go get weird in the 70s.”

Jax doesn’t like the sound of that. Mostly because the sound of that sounds a lot like the sound of Jax getting _ditched_.

“Excellent idea,” Len says approvingly.

Yeah, Jax’s getting ditched. Len says something snarky about not wanting to look his Grandma in the eye and explain underage drinking, which is _total bullshit_ and Mr. and Mr. “Let Us Introduce You Guys To Your New Best Friends Whiskey, Vodka and Tequila Under Our Supervision So You Won’t Do Anything Too Dumb” both _know it_ , those unmitigated bastards.

So. Much. Hatred.

\---------------------------

 _Of course_ Jax goes with them to pick up the emerald. It’s scarcely even an argument.

“You know Mom will kill you for this, right?” he says as he starts powering up the engine.

“I promised your mom I wouldn’t imperil your future by letting you get involved with stealing things,” Len says. “I never said anything about being a getaway driver in a space ship twenty years before you’re born. What are they going to do, put it on your permanent record?”

“You picked up how to drive this hunk of metal from an instruction manual?” Mick says approvingly. Jax beams at him.

“See, told you there was things you could learn from reading,” he teases. “I’ll show you all the relevant parts later, I promise.” 

Mick nods, satisfied. Len rolls his eyes.

It’s not until Len asks for one more stop that it occurs to Jax to wonder why this emerald. He’d mistakenly assumed that Len had just wanted to play in his Central City playbox, maybe see what it was like back in the 70s. 

He forgot about Lewis.

It’s not that he didn’t have any hints about it: Len and Lisa’s disdain for the cops that borders on pathological, the way Len won’t take off his shirt no matter how hot it gets – and how even pushing up his sleeves to wash the dishes reveals old scars, the way Mom and Grandma sometimes spoke about Len’s mother, the clues were all there. 

But damnit, this is his cousin Lenny, the guy who even the _Flash_ can’t keep down. 

Jax gets a queasy feeling in his stomach watching Len hop out of the jump ship and go to his old house, willing to risk blinking himself out of existence, undoing all the good he’s ever done for people like Jax and his family, just to try to stop the pain of his childhood. 

Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad. Maybe it’ll work just like Len wants it to and Len’ll come back and he’d be lighter, happier, years of scars and psychological agony spilling off his shoulders like water. 

Maybe. 

Jax carefully doesn’t look at Mick, who only ever met Len because of juvie. Who knows if Len would’ve gone if he hadn’t had the childhood he’d had? Would they still be together for god only knew how long? Would Mick even be here, on this trip? Would _he_?

Len comes back, tight-lipped, and they go to help the others.

Nothing changes.

Jax breathes a sigh of relief and feels guilty for it. To condemn a child to pain just so you and the people you care about can have the advantage of his often-concealed kindness and generosity – man, Jax doesn’t even want to think too hard about what that makes him, because he figures it’ll just end in self-hatred. 

That failed trip makes him uneasy about this whole venture, though. If time itself is so formidable, and Savage defeated only through such specific methods, then how likely is this trip of theirs to succeed? And how much are they risking of their lives back in 2016 by doing it?

It takes a month, maybe a bit more, for his worst fears to be realized. Mick being locked in a Russian prison, that’s nothing; Len’s upset for him but not really _worried_ , prison breaks are a traditional part of their repertoire. As are pointless fights where someone storms off until they find a way to make up. _Len_ promising to “take care” of Mick, on the other hand…

Jax refuses to believe it. Just point blank refuses. 

They’ve come together to too many family events for too many years, survived too many fights, been through too much. Len’s not anywhere near as cold as he likes to pretend he is. Mick might’ve be able to do it in a fit of rage, but Len would shoot himself first and everyone knows it. Well, not this crew, but back home; everyone knows it. Everyone knows that Len thinks Lisa is the most important thing in his life, the thing he’d sacrifice everything for, but if Mick were pointing a gun at her and Len could kill him to stop him, he’d throw himself in the way of the bullet instead. Everyone knows.

Turns out he was right.

Turns out he _so_ did not want to be right.

After the whole Kronos reveal, Jax tries to stay out of it in the hope that they’ll figure out a way to make up on their own, but after Mick finishes giving them the download about the Hunters and Rip starts to plot their course, saying something crazy about the Wild West, he does slip down the corridor after Mick.

“Hey, Mick!” he calls, hurrying to catch up, wincing a little as his knee aches. “Wait up a second.”

Mick turns back to face him. “Yeah?” he says, voice cool and disinterested and weird and not at all the Mick Rory Jax grew up knowing.

Jax punches him in the face as hard as he can manage, putting some real swing into it, twisting his hips just like Mick taught him years before. He knocks Mick down on his ass.

“You ever beat my cousin up like that again, Mick Rory, and brainwashing or not, I will go Firestorm on your ass so hard you won’t even realize you’re on fire,” Jax says and turns away.

Mick barks out a surprised laugh. “Don’t worry, kid,” he says, and he sounds a lot more like Mick again. “I’ll be good.”

Jax turns back to him and rolls his eyes at him. “I don’t want you to be _good_ ,” he says. “I want you to be whatever the hell it is that you two are _normally_. To be honest, the thought of you and Lenny trying to be _good_ is just kinda terrifying.”

“That’s what I keep saying,” Mick says. He sounds bitter.

Jax sighs. “You can’t blame Len for wanting to _do_ good,” he says. “I mean, Great-Aunt Josephine’s nagging had to get to him _eventually_ , right? Or she would’ve brought out the spoon.”

He leaves Mick sitting there on the floor and laughing at the mental image of their now-90-something year old great aunt, all wrinkled and tiny and white-haired, smacking Lenny with a spoon and telling him to be good. Jax knows that mental image well: it happened last Christmas and he is _never_ forgetting it. 

Looks like whatever the Time Masters did, Mick couldn’t forget that image either.

Something like a week or two weeks later, Len starts wearing his wedding ring again.

\-----------------------

Jax doesn’t want to go home.

Sure, he means, he does want to go home, wants to see his mom again and calm her down about those _five months_ that he just disappeared thanks to Rip and Grey (that quick phone call he gave her was, uh, definitely not sufficient judging by the amount of ringing his ears were still doing, yowch), but at the same time, he really, really doesn’t. 

Going home means leaving Mick alone, with his hollowed-out eyes and his fingers clenched around an old ring, pretending he hadn’t just been gutted like a fish, going out every night to try to get his ass kicked as belated payback for what he’d done to Len. Going home means telling people. Telling Mom, telling Grandma, telling everyone that cousin Lenny wasn’t coming home this time. Telling them that no, there wasn’t a body to bury within twenty four hours. Telling them it was time to close the doors and take time off work to sit shiva, because Len might not be the most devout person in the world (more like the opposite) but he clung to his mother’s religion like a badge of honor and he would’ve liked it that way. 

Going home means thinking about the brave, stupid, _heroic_ asshole he'd had for a cousin, who never thought he meant anything to anyone and lived his life accordingly.

God, someone was going to have to tell Lisa. Jax wasn’t going to let Mick be the one to do it; he didn’t need that on top of everything else. Mick hadn’t even really absorbed it yet. 

Then Clarissa calls him about Grey’s “unfinished sabbatical”, and Grey comes up with an idea to get the Waverider back, and they go and maybe Jax can just…postpone it? At least until they kill Savage? That was the mission Len gave his life for. It should be finished. Only when it’s done, _then_ they can mourn properly. 

So he goes.

Savage dies, three times over. Mick gets to be the one to kill him, according to Ray; he looks pleased, if still tough and bitter and hurt inside. 

Rip takes them back to 2016 to think over their options. He takes Mick back to 2013 so he can say goodbye. Watching them leave for that trip, Mick hiding his shaking hands in his pockets, Jax figures he can’t postpone it any longer. He’ll sign up for the next trip through time, sure, that much he doesn’t even really question, but there’s something he has to do first.

It’s time to go home.

He knocks on his Mom’s door and his cousin Chiyel opens it. “Jax!” she exclaims. “There you are; everyone’s been trying to get ahold of you. Did you hear about cousin Lenny?”

Jax blinks. “I was actually about to say the same thing to you,” he says cautiously, following her into the house. “What are _you_ talking about?”

“Well, you missed the whole metapocalpyse thing – don’t look at me, I didn’t name it! – and there was this earth-destroying weapon that Zoom developed, something like some sort of black hole or something, and all these breaches between the universes – again, don’t ask, I can’t explain it – started opening up all over and Lenny just fell right out of one of them, but he’s not doing too hot. Uh, no pun intended.”

“He’s _alive_?” Jax asks. “I mean - uh - wait, is he our Lenny, or some other universe's…?”

“First thing I asked,” Chiyel says with satisfaction. “See, I knew you were one of the smart ones. He says he knows us and all the old questions check out right, but sometimes when he’s got a fever he babbles some real crazy shit about time travel and something savage and something about some type of surfboard waverider thing, so nobody’s entirely sure?”

“Holy shit,” Jax says, even though his mom and grandma are standing right there and are going to take it out of him later. “I need to talk to him _right now_.”

The Len lying in bed upstairs, cold compress pressed against his forehead, his skin flushed red and eyes glazed over and all, looks a lot like the Len they left behind at the Oculus; the family’s got him as covered up with blankets as best as they can manage, knowing he’d prefer it that way, but he’s got some weird new scars on his forearms and the sides of his neck, burns that seem to almost glow blue when the light hits them the right way. Sometimes they’re greenish, but not the normal green of sickness and rot. Jax’s seen that blue and green before, whirling around outside his window on the Waverider. 

“Len?” Jax asks, shaking him slightly. “Do you know me?”

“’course I do,” Len slurs, head lolling back as he tries to focus on Jax. “Jaxie. Jax. _Firestorm_. Did we get Savage? He had Kendra…”

“We got him,” Jax confirms, knees suddenly going weak and making him have to sit on the bed. This wasn’t some alternative universe version. This was _their_ version; lucky insane bastard that he was, of course he'd find a way to fall through the universe till he found his way home. Jax brings up a hand to his mouth and bits his palm to suppress the confusing and overwhelming flood of emotions, relief and joy and missing this stupid bastard so much that his chest felt like it was going to explode. “We killed him three times over – Mick got to light him on fire.”

As expected, that makes Len smile, if woozily. “Good,” he says happily. “Mick deserves it. Mick’s great. He’s got my ring, you know that? He’ll keep track of it. Keep it safe. He’s good at keeping things safe.” He turns to where Grandma Louise is puttering over him. “He really is very good you know,” he tells her earnestly. “Much better than he thinks he is. He’s the _best_. That’s why I couldn’t let him do it, at the Oculus, y’see.”

“Of course I see,” Grandma Louise coos to him, voice nice and soothing as she switches out the compress on his head for another one from the fridge downstairs. She glares black death over Lenny’s head at Jax at the same time.

“I’ll…go and stop bothering Lenny, right?” Jax says.

“Now that’s a good idea, honey,” his grandmother, woman of steel, tells him in her sweetest voice. “Why don’t you see if you can get ahold of that husband of Lenny’s and drag him out of wherever he’s been hiding? Why you boys can’t seem to keep a single phone number for well-meaning family members to reach you in times of need, I will never understand…”

“We’re _criminals_ , Aunt Louise,” Len says, his voice fading and his eyes starting to slip closed. “We gotta use burner phones or the pigs’ll catch us.”

“Well, the police won’t be coming in _here_ to get you,” Grand-Aunt Josephine says from the door. Jesus Christ, they brought out all the family dragons for this one and every last one of them’s raring for a fight – Jax almost feels sorry for the first unauthorized person who tries to come through the door.

Also for Mick, who committed the grievous sin of not miraculously divining where Len was and instantaneously transporting himself to his side. 

Holy crap, Mick’s in 2013, saying goodbye; he doesn’t even know Len’s alive. Jax needs to get back to the Waverider and _stat_.

He pulls out his cell, hits speed-dial number 4 (1 is Mom, 2 is Grandma, 3 is his favorite pizza place – you gotta keep your priorities straight in life). “Grey?” he says. “I need you to come pick me up asap. Taking the bus isn’t going to cut it. How long till Mick gets back again?”

Jax looks back at where Len is unhappily mumbling something in his sleep. Whatever’s wrong with him, this fever or whatever, his team will be able to fix it; either Gideon with her so-advanced-it’s-basically-magic tech or Grey with those scientific biological solutions he pulls out of his ass despite his supposed specialty in physics or hell, even if they have to jump forward into the future and get him to some sort of advanced era doctor, Jax doesn’t care. Lenny’s going to be okay. Lenny’s _back_.

Grey asks why he needs to see Mick so badly.

Jax grins. “I got a surprise for him that I’m thinking he’s going to like.”

**Author's Note:**

> Things that occurred to me during the writing of this fic:  
> 1, I don't actually know how to write a family that isn't dominated by tough-as-steel matriarchs because I don't think I've ever met one? Either in my entire extended family or in my friends'? Do these things exist outside of television? Is it just a Jewish thing? Who knows? Some conversations ascribed to Jax's family may or may not be directly translated quotes here, is what I'm saying.  
> 2, cousin, aunt, and great-aunt are used the correct way in this fic, by which I mean that the "once removed" or "second"/"third" levels are dropped without any hesitation and you end up calling your fifty-something-year-old third cousin once removed "aunt" because damnit, it's the same basic generational gap, screw the subtleties. Jax's family is large, but it's not as large as you might think if you tried to read every instance of "aunt" and "uncle" as being literal blood siblings of his mother.  
> 3, Jax's family is named in pure comic-book style: James Jackson, Jenna Jackson and Jefferson Jackson.


End file.
